Jiang Lianyue looked up and felt that the person in front of her seemed somewhat familiar, though she could not recall where she had seen him before.
The corners of her lips curved slightly as she smiled and said, “I’m selling breakfast here at a stall. What brings you here as well?”
The young man seemed genuinely happy to see Jiang Lianyue and said excitedly, “I came to the park with my grandpa for a walk. I didn’t expect to run into you here. The granny you saved last time, her doctor said that if she had been brought in any later, she wouldn’t have made it. After her family arrived, they asked around for you. Did they manage to find you?”
Only then did Jiang Lianyue remember. This was the young man in the sailor shirt who had helped her perform CPR that day.
“They found me. It wasn’t a big deal, not worth all that trouble,” Jiang Lianyue replied indifferently.
The old woman had survived partly because she was lucky, and partly because the doctors arrived in time. Otherwise, even with CPR, there was no guarantee she could have been saved.
“Ah Kai,” the grandpa called out when he saw the young man lagging behind and turned back.
Lan Kai hurried over, holding his grandpa by the arm. Turning back toward Jiang Lianyue, he said, “Grandpa, she’s the pretty lady I told you about, the one who saved someone.”
“Oh?” Grandpa turned and looked Jiang Lianyue over. “It’s her?”
“Yes, Grandpa. Didn’t you say girls like this are rare? She’s selling cheung fun now, shouldn’t you help support her business?” Lan Kai said with a grin.
Grandpa shot his grandson a glance and scolded him jokingly, “Go buy two portions. We’ll eat first, then head to the park.”
Lan Kai chuckled and ran up to Jiang Lianyue’s stall, calling out loudly, “Boss, four rolls of cheung fun please, two with meat and two with egg.”
Jiang Lianyue said, “My portions are pretty big. One roll per person is enough.”
Lan Kai replied, “I eat a lot. Grandpa eats one, I’ll eat three.”
The young man’s smile was sincere and full of youthful energy. Jiang Lianyue could not help laughing and said, “You’re my first customers today. Buy three, get one free. I’ll only charge you for three.”
Lan Kai scratched his head. “Alright, then we’ll come back again tomorrow.”
Jiang Lianyue had them sit by the folding table to wait. She lifted the lid of the pot, took out a tray, poured rice batter over it, spreading it thinly across the surface. She placed the tray back onto the pot and covered it. After one minute, she removed the tray and replaced it with another already coated with batter. On the steamed rice sheet, she spread minced pork, then used a bamboo scraper to roll it into a tube. With chopsticks, she slid the cheung fun onto a plate, then used an aluminum knife to cut it into sections. One roll was finished. She poured batter onto the empty tray again and swapped it with the one on the pot. Her movements were swift and practiced. In less than five minutes, she had prepared two plates of cheung fun.
“This is yellow peel sauce, and this is chili soy sauce. Add whichever dipping sauce you like,” Jiang Lianyue said, placing two small bowls on their table as she explained.
Lan Kai lowered his head to look at the cheung fun. The skin was thin and the filling generous. Through the translucent rice sheet, he could faintly see the reddish-brown minced pork. He poured yellow peel sauce over it, picked up a piece with his chopsticks, and put it into his mouth. The rice skin was tender and smooth, the pork flavorful. Before he could even savor it properly, he had already swallowed.
Only after finishing an entire roll did Lan Kai look up and say, “It’s delicious. Grandpa, you should try it too, it’s even better than the ones from the state-run restaurant.”
Grandpa was already eating. He nodded when he heard that and smiled. “The taste is pretty good.”
Once someone broke the ice, Jiang Lianyue quickly welcomed a second table of customers. This time it was a woman with a cropped haircut and her son.
The little boy looked about three or four years old, thin and small, his complexion somewhat pale. As he passed the stall with his mother and saw how happily Lan Kai was eating, he started clamoring for some.
The woman could not placate him and finally gave in. “If you want to eat, you have to finish it. No leftovers. If you waste food, I won’t bring you out for breakfast again.”
Just moments ago, he had been saying he wanted pork rice noodles. Now he was insisting on cheung fun. Every time he saw something new, it was the same, making a fuss to try it, only to lose interest after a few bites.
The little boy stared fixedly at Lan Kai and swallowed. “I’ll finish it.”
The woman had him sit at another folding table, then stepped forward to check the price. “An egg roll is eight fen, right? Give me one with egg.”
“Alright, please wait a moment.”
Jiang Lianyue answered clearly and began steaming the cheung fun. She poured a small amount of batter onto the tray, cracked an egg over it, gently spreading the egg white and yolk with a spoon until it covered the entire tray. She then placed it into the pot to steam. One minute later, she took it out, rolled the rice sheet, cut it into sections, and the egg cheung fun was ready.
“It’s ready. There’s yellow peel sauce and chili soy sauce here, add whatever you like,” Jiang Lianyue said as she placed the plate in front of the dipping bowls.
She had originally planned to leave the sauces aside for customers to help themselves. The extra bowls earlier were only because the sailor-shirt young man and his grandpa were acquaintances and her first customers of the day.
The little boy had been staring at Jiang Lianyue the entire time. When he heard her, he immediately pointed at Lan Kai and said, “I want the same as that uncle.”
The woman followed her son’s finger to Lan Kai’s plate. It was already empty, but traces of brownish-yellow sauce remained, making it clear which dipping sauce he had used.
She scooped a generous spoonful of yellow peel sauce onto her son’s plate and brought it to him. “Eat. Remember what you just promised, finish it all.”
The little boy eagerly grabbed his chopsticks and started eating right away.
The woman watched him, prepared to scold him when he stopped halfway as usual, hoping it would stop him from making scenes in public in the future.
Instead, the little boy devoured the food. Before long, he had finished the entire roll.
The woman had not even reacted yet. She stared at him in a daze.
Usually, feeding him was a nightmare. She would chase him around with a bowl for one or two hours just to get him to eat half a bowl. How was he being so obedient today?
“Mom, I still want more,” the little boy said, sticking out his tongue and licking his lips, looking at her expectantly.
The woman snapped out of it, her face lighting up. “Eat, eat, then we’ll get another one.”
She turned and called out to Jiang Lianyue, “Boss, another roll please.”
Jiang Lianyue had just seen off the sailor-shirt young man and his grandpa and was clearing the dishes. Hearing her, she smiled and said, “Sister-in-law, my cheung fun portions are pretty big. Even adults are full after one. A child would definitely be a bit too full after finishing one. Bring him again tomorrow.”
Her son had finally taken the initiative to eat so much, and she wanted to seize the opportunity to let him eat more. But on second thought, the cheung fun really was quite large, one roll filled an entire plate. Maybe he really was full.
She stood up and touched the boy’s belly. It was indeed round. If he ate more, he would not be able to handle it.
“Son, are you full?” she asked.
The boy patted his belly and smacked his lips. “I’m full, but I still want to eat.”
She coaxed him gently. “We’ll come again tomorrow, okay?”
“No, I want to eat now!”
“You’re already full. If you eat more, your stomach won’t be able to take it,” she said patiently.
“I want to eat. I want it now,” the boy shouted loudly.
The woman hesitated and turned to Jiang Lianyue. “Boss, ”
Jiang Lianyue waved her hand and walked over to the little boy. Squatting down in front of him, she asked, “Is Auntie’s cheung fun really that delicious?”
“Yes,” the boy nodded vigorously. “I still want to eat.”
Jiang Lianyue said, “No matter how delicious something is, if you eat too much at once, you’ll get tired of it and it won’t taste good anymore. You don’t want to think cheung fun isn’t tasty today, do you?”
The boy thought for a moment, then nodded vaguely. “I don’t want that.”
“Then Auntie will make it for you again tomorrow, alright?” Jiang Lianyue said. “That way, today you’ll keep thinking cheung fun is really delicious.”
“Okay,” the boy agreed obediently.
The woman looked at Jiang Lianyue with admiration. “Boss, you’re amazing. He’s been spoiled by us. Usually only his dad can occasionally talk him into listening. He never listens to anyone else. I didn’t expect him to listen to you!”
Jiang Lianyue smiled. “He’s very smart. Just treat him like an adult and explain the reason clearly.”
Hearing someone praise her son, the woman beamed. “You’re right. We’ll explain things to him properly from now on.”
“Auntie Liu, you brought your son out for breakfast again?” a woman in a blue work uniform greeted her from the roadside.
The woman laughed in reply. “Isn’t that right? Luckily he wasn’t picky today. Otherwise, just feeding him would have taken the entire morning.”
“Well now, that really is something,” the woman in the work uniform said, then asked the little boy, “Xiao Zhong, are you full?”
Xiao Zhong rubbed his belly and replied, “I’m full. I ate a big roll of cheung fun. I wanted more, but Auntie said if you eat too much of good food at once, it won’t taste good anymore, so I won’t eat more today. I’ll come back tomorrow.”
Seeing how clearly her son spoke, the woman smiled even more brightly. “My son was so well-behaved today.”
The woman in the work uniform laughed. “Xiao Zhong is usually well-behaved too, isn’t he?”
Xiao Zhong nodded. “Yes. I’m usually good. I just think rice doesn’t taste good, so I don’t want to eat it.”
The woman in the work uniform sat down at another folding table that had just been vacated and said with a smile, “If Xiao Zhong thinks it’s delicious, Auntie will try it too.”
Worried that her son would start fussing again if he saw it, the woman quickly stood up. “We’re full too. Take your time eating. Come on, son, we’re going to buy groceries.”
Xiao Zhong followed his mother, saying as he walked, “Auntie, I ate the egg one.”
The woman in the work uniform laughed. “Alright, Auntie will have the egg one too.”
After the woman and Xiao Zhong left, the woman in the work uniform looked up at the signboard and called out loudly, “Boss, one egg cheung fun for me too.”
And just like that, Jiang Lianyue’s customers gradually increased. Before eleven o’clock, the bucket of rice batter was empty.
Remembering her promise to Old Meng, Jiang Lianyue used the last bit of batter to make two rolls of cheung fun. She placed them in cleaned bowls, packed up her stall, and headed back.
By then, the sun was quite strong. When Jiang Lianyue returned to the machinery factory residential area, her Dacron shirt was soaked through.
Old Meng looked at her in surprise. “Girl, you sold out?”
“Yes. It was my first day setting up the stall, so I didn’t make much.”
After parking the pushcart, Jiang Lianyue took out the bowls of cheung fun and handed them to Old Meng. “Uncle Meng, it’s my opening day today. Try my cooking.”
Old Meng wanted to refuse, but when he lowered his head and saw the cheung fun, thin-skinned, generously filled, and fragrant, his words changed. “Then I’ll have a taste. But only today. You can’t be this generous in the future.”
“In the future, if you want to eat, I’ll charge you,” Jiang Lianyue said jokingly.
“Alright, alright,” Old Meng replied with a laugh.
Jiang Lianyue poured yellow peel sauce over the cheung fun. “Eat it quickly. If you don’t, it’ll go soggy. I’m heading back.”
With that, she lifted her pots and bowls and went upstairs.
There were dishes to wash, meals to cook, rest to take. In the afternoon, she still had to go shopping to prepare for tomorrow’s stall. She could not afford to waste time.
Old Meng watched Jiang Lianyue disappear upstairs and thought to himself that this girl truly knew how to conduct herself. She was bound to accomplish great things in the future.
“Old Meng, what are we having for lunch? It smells so good.”